Home run king Barry Bonds will not spend a day in federal prison, regardless of whether he wins his next legal game and wipes his obstruction-of-justice conviction off the books.

A federal judge on Friday rejected a last-ditch bid by federal prosecutors to punish Bonds with a prison term, ordering him to serve two years on probation and a month of home confinement that will likely restrict him with electronic monitoring in his Beverly Hills mansion.

At the same time, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston agreed to put the sentence on hold while Bonds pursues an appeal to set aside the conviction, ensuring another year or more of legal wrangling in a case that has already stretched back eight years. When it comes to the long-running perjury case against the San Francisco Giants legend, it ain't over till it's over.

The 47-year-old Bonds kept his public silence on the case intact throughout the day, declining the judge's offer to address the court before the sentence and dashing to an awaiting black SUV to leave the building without commenting. He winked at his mother, Pat, as he strode into the courtroom, and hugged his supporters after the hearing, but otherwise kept his emotions under wraps as he learned his fate.

Prosecutors urged Illston to send Bonds to prison for 15 months for his conviction for obstructing justice during his December 2003 testimony before a federal grand jury investigating the BALCO steroids scandal. But Illston sided with federal probation officials, who prepared a secret report that outlined reasons to give the retired slugger probation, from the relative low impact of his crime to a history of quiet charitable and community work outside the public eye.

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In addition to probation and home confinement, Bonds will also have to perform 250 hours of community service and pay a $4,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella, who argued against the lesser sentence, called probation and home confinement "inappropriate" and "something of a slap on the wrist." Prosecutors wanted to put away Bonds for one of the longest terms in the entire BALCO case.

But Illston disagreed, a move widely anticipated by legal experts.

Illston's sentence was consistent with the punishment she meted out earlier in the case to Tammy Thomas, a former world-class cyclist convicted of perjury, and former track coach Trevor Graham, convicted of lying to federal agents. Both received probation and home confinement.

"No surprise," said William Keane, Graham's lawyer. "Given this judge's prior probation sentences in the BALCO false statement and obstruction cases and the fact that there was nothing about Bonds' case to make it an outlier, the judge stayed the course she set long ago."

In April, a jury concluded Bonds obstructed justice by providing a rambling, evasive answer to a question about whether he'd ever been supplied with steroids or injected by his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson. The jury deadlocked on three other perjury counts, which have since been dropped by prosecutors.

Outside court, Bonds' lawyers had little to say about the sentence. But they vowed to press the appeal in a bid to remove the "felon" tag from Bonds' legacy.

Dennis Riordan, one of Bonds' lawyers, said Bonds was "wrongfully convicted of a felony," and the appeal would be filed immediately to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Legal experts have said the obstruction count might be vulnerable on appeal.

The sentencing hearing, meanwhile, was yet more drama in the waning BALCO scandal.

Bonds was always the most high-profile name linked to BALCO, a now-defunct Peninsula laboratory that sprouted the largest doping scandal in sports history. Bonds was hauled in front of the grand jury investigating the lab in 2003 as he chased baseball's all-time home run record, asked to explain evidence that appeared to link him to steroid use, BALCO, Anderson and BALCO founder Victor Conte.

Bonds repeatedly denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs, prompting years of further investigation that led to his indictment on perjury and obstruction charges nearly five years ago.

To critics, including Conte, the government's case was a waste of taxpayer money to go after a superstar whose legacy was already tarnished by strong evidence he used performance-enhancing drugs in the latter stages of a surefire Hall of Fame career. But to the government, it was a case designed to show that no one can undermine the grand jury process by lying under oath, regardless of their fame.

Conte scoffed at the outcome for the government, noting that Bonds will be able to work even during his month of monitoring and when he's confined to his house can "hang out at his pool."

During April's trial, federal prosecutors unveiled a host of witnesses who tried to link Bonds to steroid use, including his former mistress, Kimberly Bell, and several current and former baseball players, such as former Oakland A's star Jason Giambi.

Prosecutors, however, were always hamstrung in the case by Anderson's steadfast refusal to testify against Bonds. He spent about a year in federal prison for refusing to testify before the grand jury investigating Bonds for perjury, and an additional three weeks during the trial in the spring.

"You spend tens of millions of dollars on this," Conte said, "and this is what the net result is?"